Hello there and welcome back! We are starting back up with a new school year here at Marywood and I have been really focused on ceramics since being back. So, today I wanted to focus on a ceramicist I recently stumbled across in my research. Magdalene Odundo is an extremely talented artist who has a very special and unique art style. Her pottery is smooth, shiny, and shaped in such a beautiful, flowing way. It is truly a great experience to view her work and is very inspiring for artists in general.

Magdalene was born in Kenya in 1950, but she later moved to the UK to study art. While learning in school she also traveled to places like Nigeria and India to study different ways people make pottery. These cultures really inspired her work and I think it’s noticeable in her art.

What makes her pottery so special is how it looks like both a pot and a person at the same time. Some of her pieces have wide bottoms and narrow tops, kind of like a human figure. They feel warm and full of life which is a talent of hers. It’s definitely not an easy feat to make an inanimate object feel alive. 

She doesn’t glaze her pots in a traditional way. Instead she uses a method called burnishing which is rubbing the surface with a smooth stone to make it shiny. Then she fires them sometimes using smoke so they turn black or deep red. The results are stunning and her pieces look like they glow.

You can find her work in major museums, like the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art  in New York. If you are to come across them in person or even in pictures her pots will stop you in your tracks. They’re not just pretty objects, they feel like they hold stories and emotion.

I hope you enjoyed learning about this artist and hopefully it inspired you to look into her yourself! Thanks!

~Marissa